Spondias mombin - Yellow Mombin
Family:
Native to:
Habitat:
Anacardiaceae
Central and northern South America, the Caribbean.
Open forest, secondary growth, pastures. 15 meter tall tree, up to 1960 meters above sea level.
Ecological value:
Flowers attract honeybees. Fast growing: can reach 3.5 meters in 2 years. Can be cultivated from cuttings. Starts fruiting at 5 years old. Out of the 17 Spondias species, 10 produce edible fruit.
Material uses:
Seed oil content: 31.5%. Bark contains tannin, used in dyeing. Low quality wood, prone to attack by wood boring insects. Used for matches. Latex used for glue. Woody tubercles on trunk used for bottle stoppers. Ashes used in indigo dyeing and soap. Bark thick, used for carving figures.
Edible uses:
Fruit processed into jellies, juice or pickle. Young leaves as vegetable. Seeds are edible.
Medicinal use:
Fruit as febrifuge and diuretic. Leaves and roots treat pain, coughs, kills parasites, treats mouth sores, dysentery, induce labor and abortion, contraceptive. Vitamin B1 and C.
Other details:
Common live fence. Fruits to feed livestock. Fuel wood. Severely damaged by frost. Shallow, poor soil not suitable. Used for shade tree for coffee.
Research:
Christine Facella/Adrian Chiu
Sources:
“Spondias Mombin L. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science.” n.d. Plants of the World Online. Accessed November 18, 2023. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:71480-1/general-information.
“Spondias Mombin - Useful Tropical Plants.” n.d. Tropical.theferns.info. https://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Spondias+mombin.
Lorenzi. H., ‘Brazilian Trees. Volume 1. 4th Edition’, Instituto Plantarum De Estudos Da Flora; Brazil, 2002
Facciola. S., ‘Cornucopia II’, Kampong Publications, California, 1998
Huxley. A., ‘The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992’, MacMillan Press, 1992
Image source: Filo gèn.